1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for collecting a plurality of a predetermined number of commodities into groups, and more particularly, to a dividing device for a collecting device in which commodities are temporarily collected into a large group each including commodities more than a required number, and then, they are divided into smaller groups of an intended number of commodities.
2. Prior Art
Usually, a commodity, such as a package for beverages shown in FIG. 7, is put together with other commodities so that they are integrally wrapped so as to be delivered to the marketplace.
A collecting device for commodities having the following construction has been known. The commodities successively supplied by a conveyance conveyor are intercepted by a pair of vertical conveyors provided at both sides of the conveyance conveyor, then a predetermined number of the commodities are supplied forward to be aligned and pushed out from a side by a pusher. This operation is repeated to collect a predetermined number of the commodities.
The commodity groups collected in the above described process are discharged respectively in units by another pusher or the like for shrink-wrapping or the like.
However, in a collecting device for the commodities wherein the commodites successively supplied by a conveyance conveyor are aligned in a group of a predetermined number of commodities and are then pushed out sideways by a pusher, time is unavoidably lost during the collecting operation.
In particular, it is impossible to align new commodities on the conveyance conveyor while the pusher reciprocates to push out the aligned commodities sideways. Further, the commodities aligned on the conveyance conveyor cannot be pushed out while the collected commodity groups are being discharged.
Therefore, particularly when the number of commodities collected in one group is relatively small, the disadvantage of losing time is increased many times and operation performance is greatly lowered.